The Cut

Trump’s proposed budget is out. Among all the cuts – because you have to cut in order to increase defense spending while simultaneously giving the rich a tax cut – among all these cuts is one that people with ME should take very personally. NIH’s budget will be cut by 18% or $6 billion in fiscal year 2018, if Trump’s budgets passes as is. The proposed budget also calls for a reorganization of NIH’s Institutes, but offers little detail. Here’s how I feel about that:

In addition, more than 80% of NIH’s budget goes out the door to fund academic biomedical research, largely in the United States. How will researchers do their research? I guess they’ll have to do 18% less of it. But it won’t just affect those researchers’ salaries paid by their grants, or the purchase of equipment (I wonder what will happen to the businesses that supply that equipment?), or the training of doctoral and post doctoral students. It will affect American universities, research hospitals, and other research institutions.

The university system is dependent on indirect costs tacked on to grants. Indirect costs are a percentage added to a grant by the university. It covers the costs associated with university infrastructure, like buildings and administration and libraries. If NIH’s budget is cut by 18%, then NIH will fund substantially less academic research. And if substantially less academic research is being funded, then American universities are stuck holding the bag. Because universities will still have buildings and staff and libraries, but a big chunk of that cost will not be covered by the indirect costs normally charged to grants. Trump’s budget may cut taxes for the rich, but it’s one hell of a tax on our universities.

Ok, but so what, right? After all, it’s not like NIH spends a whole lot on ME. Just $7.6 million in 2016. So who cares if NIH has a funding cut, right?

Are you prepared for an 18% reduction in ME spending?

I’m not. For one thing, the first year of funding for the new Collaborative Research Centers is set aside in this year’s budget. But all bets are off going forward. Like many other RFAs, the one for ME Centers explicitly states, “Future year amounts will depend on annual appropriations.” So it is possible that future years of funding could be cut or eliminated.

It’s common sense to conclude that if NIH’s budget is cut by 18% next year, every program and RFA and grant pool will be severely cut. NIH will make far fewer grants, and that will hit everybody hard.

But that could even be a best case scenario. After all, if I’m NIH and my choice is between an HIV/AIDS study and an ME study, there are a lot of reasons why I’m going pick HIV. Biodefense? Flu? Alzheimer’s Disease? Epilepsy? Spinal cord injury? Osteoporosis?
We’re not winning out against those diseases now. Do you really think that NIH will say, well, we should spread that 18% cut around evenly across the board. Do you expect that this cut will be applied fairly? Is any university going to support a faculty member who wants to apply for an ME grant instead of . . . basically any other disease?

ME research is stigmatized now. ME research is on a starvation diet now. What happens in any system when resources become more scarce? The weakest members of the system lose. And they lose hard.

Whatever your political views or affiliations, whatever you think of the current Administration, if you want to protect research funding then you have to make your voice heard. Call your Representative today. Make sure he/she knows that you support NIH funding and ask him/her to do the same.

To contact your Representative call (202) 224-3121. The switchboard will automatically connect you to your Representative after you punch in your zip code.

Trump makes me sick and now he's intending to make me sicker- as well as America and the rest of the world. The wrong man in the wrong job at the wrong time. The environment (and therefore health) is teetering on the brink of disaster- if not already past the tipping point- and he plays war, lies, is endeavouring to use his position to enrich himself, family and friends, and, most egregious of all is fixated on destroying any legislation that Obama so much as breathed on. Your article was very informative- but have you any suggestions as to what we can do about this situation?

I'm sorry you decided to turn this issue into a political rant instead of sticking to the subject. I'm also sorry you turned my favorite website into a forum for other people to bash our President. Your concerns may be valid but I can't hear them when all I hear is that you don't like Trump.